•Security agencies influenced president –Akoh
President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the proposed Peace Corps of Nigeria Establishment Bill, 2017.
The bill has been a subject of controversy after it was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.
The president conveyed his rejection of the bill in a letter which Speaker Yakubu Dogara read during the House of Representatives plenary, yesterday.
The National Assembly passed the bill last year, after a prolonged battle which involved the organisation and the nation’s security agencies.
Buhari cited security concerns and financial burden of funding the organisation by the government as reasons for rejecting the bill.
“The proposed Nigerian Peace Corps (is) being authorised to undertake activities currently being performed by extant security and law enforcement agencies.
“Financial implications of funding the establishment and operations of the proposed Nigerian Peace Corps, given the scarce financial resources, may pose serious challenges to the government,” the president noted.
The Peace Corps of Nigeria has been involved in various controversies since the bill came to limelight at the National Assembly.
There are litigations currently pending before the court between the National Commandant of the Nigerian Peace Corps, Dr Dickson Akoh, and the Nigeria Police Force.
The organisation’s premises has also been cordoned off, since last year, by policemen, despite a court judgement and a directive from the House of Representatives, asking the police to vacate the premises.
Despite two court orders, the police have said they will keep the facility shut in the “interest of national security and public safety.”
The police and other established security agencies, including the Department of State Services, have repeatedly resisted the Peace Corps’ push to become a paramilitary agency.
Akoh and Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, were expected to appear before a House of Representatives committee investigating the dispute between the police and the organisation.
Akoh, however, told newsmen at the National Assembly, yesterday, that the president’s decision was not strange to him.
“Let me tell you, on January 15, the same security agencies that opposed the bill went to Mr. President and told him that instead of voting money to create a new establishment, they should use it to improve the efficiency of their own activities.”
He said the security agencies also told the president that the Peace Corps was a duplication of what they were already doing. He said that prompted the advertorial his organisation did in major newspapers highlighting the differences between the expected functions of the Peace Corps and other existing security agencies.
“For me, whatever I’m doing is in the interest of the vast majority of Nigerian youths. From what I’m seeing, there is a conspiracy against Nigerian youths,” he said.
He said the security agencies had vowed after the passage of the bill by the National Assembly to do anything to forestall the president’s assent.
“We have bills like this that suffered the same setback but eventually became a reality. We are consoled by the due process of the law and we know that one day, attention would be given to the bill. Building an institution takes a gradual process that we ought not to be in a hurry.”
The corps is currently a registered non-governmental organisation.